It really means having a business that provides a wage, but the business do es not make any money above the amount to pay the owners wages and pay on the capital invested.
Owning a business is having a business that makes money over and above just getting by.
In my case I worked with a guy building houses, but he did not really want to grow. He talked of growing the business, but really just wanted to buil d one house at a time and have a job where he could control everything. He went bankrupt. I lost money.
The other one was a guy making fishing rod blanks. He interviewed my son a nd was going to hire him, but the Sunday evening before the Monday when my son was to start work, he called me and asked me to break the news to my so n that he had changed his mind. He never employed anyone other than his wif e. He had a government pension and just wanted to have job where he did n ot have any pressure.
Tee Nut on the other hand bought a machine shop, bought some up to date ma chines, and was developing a rifle as a product. He was working at having a machine shop , but not a shop where he worked as a machinist.
Dan